


Jenova Descending

by sanctum_c



Series: Aerti Week 2018 [6]
Category: Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997)
Genre: Aliens, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Jupiter Ascending Fusion, Cleaning, F/F, First Meetings, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-25
Updated: 2018-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:08:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27580481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctum_c/pseuds/sanctum_c
Summary: A perfectly normal day for Aeris Gainsborough in her job cleaning the Shinra building. That is until the strangers turn up to kidnap her and a rather attractive woman helps her escape.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough/Tifa Lockhart
Series: Aerti Week 2018 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2016011
Kudos: 9





	Jenova Descending

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by (unsurprisingly) _Jupiter Ascending_.

Aeris jerked awake at the sound of her alarm, and with an overly familiar grumble batted the clock to silence before rolling out of bed. Long since used to the darkness when she woke up, the need to move relatively quietly as she got ready for work. Life in the slums was not easy; made worse when her job entailed the long commute to the upper plate and cleaning in some of the big fancy buildings up there. Not an ideal life but all she had. It would be nice to leave the city – but where would she go and how would she support living? It would be nice to find another job, but finding the time to do so in between working, travelling, eating and the odd moment when nothing else was happening made it complicated.

Quick wash at this time of morning; not as if she was going to meet anyone she had to make a good impression on – and her desire for slightly more sleep had put paid to the time to arrange something in the evenings. She shrugged on the faded blue overalls, marred with any number of stains the origins of never bore thinking about, picked her staff up from beside the door, her lunch from the fridge and headed out into Sector Five.

Not many people around this time of day, but Midgar could never truly sleep. A few nods and waves as she made her way through the streets. People seemed relaxed; no monster attacks last night from the looks of things. These intrusions from Midgar’s other population were usually resolved by the time she woke, but did not eclipse the human cost incurred from whatever had emerged from the darkness to snatch away an unwary victim – or resulted from tangling in a far more deadly manner than a would be hero fuelled by too much liquor.

She curled her lip at a sign in the station; rail fares were going up again – so much for any thoughts of savings. If she wanted anything, she needed to figure out a way to make some more money. And to do so in a way that took little time and paid well. None of the adverts inside the train offered anything useful. Lawyers hawking services, insurance and people extolling the virtues of some extravagance she would have difficulty affording if somehow transport, transport and clothes were not constant drains. She did better than some; at least Mom owned her house. Many of the cleaning staff struggled to survive to the end of the month. A few mooted venturing into Sector Six and the work offered there; most resorted to keeping clothing going well past the point of destruction via any method they could manage.

A chill wind swept across the upper plate when the train ground to a halt. Always cold at this time on the upper plate. Disappointing too; now should be a perfect time to at least get a glimpse of the stars, but the perpetual haze clinging to the city marred the sky from her view. Something else the city had robbed her of. She pushed the thoughts of out of her mind. Now was no time for day-dreaming or fretting. Both factors would only serve to make the day seem longer than it already threatened to be. More infuriating and tiring, all so the corporate headquarters would be ready and clean for when the staff started to arrive.

The night security guard studied her badge intently when she stepped into the lobby. Always did. The company was overly concerned with security – and weird to think of anyone trying to assault the building. A long check of her versus her image; the photo was at least taken when she was feeling grumpy and surly – a good enough match to the present. No need to try and force a smile. The guard shot her one more suspicious look and ran the card through a reader. An electronic beep, a green light and forced her to step forward as he held the pass back out. Taking his entertainment where he could find it.

Aeris muttered when she was out of ear-shot and clipped the badge to her overalls. The service elevator ferried her down a few floors to the province of cleaning supplies, rubbish carts and mops – and her co-workers.

“Morning,” Aeris muttered and trudged to the coffee machine. She got a few mornings back from the others, most attention focused on the clock as it counted down to the start of today’s shift. The coffee was too hot, her tongue and throat burned. Not paying enough attention – and the pain did little to wake her as it faded to a dull throb. At least the caffeine should help when it kicked it.

The clock struck the hour and Aeris swigged as much of her mug as she could, wincing with each pained swallow. Wouldn’t do to let her mind wander or to procrastinate over the work necessary this morning. Still working when the main staff started arriving was grounds for instant dismissal; as was perception she was not working hard or fast enough would see her wages docked. A glass of water would have been good to soothe her throat, but no time. Aeris darted back out of the room. Headed for the top to work their way down.

Rota specified job allocation; at least no one cleaned out the bathrooms day in day out. Aeris was on vacuuming today; not the best but far from the worst role. So long as the vacuum was not filled with dust and risked of sending a plume of dust into the air as she struggled with the aging appliance. Try to stay positive. The group split up, each to their own roles. Little chance of conversation while she was running the vacuum cleaner – one of the major downsides.

Aeris uncoiled the cable and set to work on the acres of carpet surrounding the president’s desk. Today was odd for some reason. A few times as she worked her way across the floor, there was a nuisance blinking light outside the window. No sooner had she turned her back on it, when she caught it once again. No. Not blinking; a strange shifting light. But it resolved (moved was perhaps the better word) into another of the lights arrayed around the tip of the building to warn of its height. She tried to ignore them but was unable to quell the frustration of the light still glinting almost out of sight whichever way she looked.

The next time she looked for it, the light resolved and now it did not annoy her. Some strange quirk of rising heat and reflections no doubt. Made sense; how else could it move away when she tried to look directly at it, unless the movement of her eye dispelled the effect. Aeris resumed cleaning with renewed effort before what sounded a lot like breaking glass came from somewhere behind her. She switched the appliance off and strained her hearing. Nothing but the thudding of her heart. No time for this. She reached for the on button- There. Breaking glass and something else now audible.

What was down one floor? Mostly secretary stations and some of the more advanced executives. Not a lot of glass down there- Except for the external windows. Had one of her companions somehow broken a window? Aeris abandoned the vacuum cleaner and headed for the ramp down. If it was nothing she would lose little to see what happened. If it was anything else – if against the odds glass fallen from the window injured one of her fellow workers-

Aeris swallowed and hurried down to the floor below. “Undyne?” she called. Nothing. The windows nearby were still intact, but there was a sensation of moving air, a noise of the waking city from an immense height. Aeris quickened her pace as she followed the floor around. “Un-“ Aeris bit back the name, but too slow.

Ahead of her, Undyne’s body lay slumped on the floor. Too distant to be certain if dead or merely unconscious. Her hand flopped back down, released from a gloved hand. Two black-clad strangers stood over Undyne, their attention directed at Aeris. They wore some kind of masks hiding their eyes, ugly metal constructs glinting with the impression of sensors and cameras. Aeris fought to decide to demand to know what they were doing, what Undyne’s situation was, how were they- There was something outside the window, something floating beside the building. A craft – it had to be a craft. All sharp points narrowed to needle-like tips, seemingly held aloft by some near silent blue glow at the base.

“New candidate.” The harsh, mechanical voice emanated from the left-hand figure. They paid Undyne no more attention. “Unarmed.” Aeris took a step back- Both figures surged forward, striding across the carpet towards her. Flight won out, and Aeris darted away. Where to? The lifts? She slammed her hand against the call button. Futile; the indicators above both sets of doors showed both cars not far from the lobby. She leapt forward, barely avoiding the clutching hand of one of the figures, the other approaching to flank him. No way to race for the stairs; nowhere to go but up.

Aeris ran up the slope. Great plan. There were few ways off the top of the building. Absurd thought of tying something around her waist to try and get into a lower floor by breaking a window. And it would only work if her pursuers did not take the easy choice of severing her support line. She grabbed for the vacuum cleaner, wielding the tube with both hands. “Stay back!”

The figures paused. “Candidate is armed.”

“Proceed with caution,” the other replied. Assuming it was the other. The pair were moving slower, but how long could she hold them off? Aeris backed up, keeping both the intruders in sight. All too soon, her back was up against the glass walls of the office. Nowhere to run to. No hope. No. Her weapon might not be effective, but she was not going down without a fight. She raised the tube higher, waiting for the first figure to come in range.

The window exploded. A shower of glass rushed into the room as something- as someone rocketed into the space. At their feet was a similar blue glow to the mysterious craft; the figure arced through the air, turning over and over. They landed, momentum keeping them moving away from the now broken window. The new figure pulled something from their belt – a weapon. A burst of red leapt from the barrel to each figure in turn; both collapsed to the floor in twitching huddles.

The blue glow dissipated and the new stranger strode towards Aeris. Saviour or a new foe? Not willing to wait to find out. She dropped the tube and sprinted. “Wait!” She ignored the stranger, reaching the bottom of the ramp as the lift doors slid open with a chime. A way out. Aeris fell into the lift and slammed her hand onto the lowest floor she could reach. Not fast enough. The stranger’s foot on the ramp heading towards her? Aeris jabbed at the close door buttons, not letting out her held breath until the doors had completely closed and the lift descended.

Safe for now. Who were any of those people? And was she going to catch the blame for any of this? Was she going to get fired for breaking from routine? Hardly fair given what happened to Undyne, the strange figures in black, the thing floating outside the window. Aeris blinked. There, out the corner of her eye, a flickering blue glow. The Upper plate rose up as the lift descended. But right beside the lift, keeping pace with its descent was a similar construct to the one she glimpsed above. Surfaces ending in needle-like points, a flickering glow keeping it aloft.

Aeris stumbled back. She needed to stop the lift, get out and try the stairs. Maybe hide somewhere until this – whatever this was – was over with and she could get home. She slapped at the buttons without looking, fingers finding nothing but metal. A single glance back at the control panel- A flicker of red from the craft. The world exploded around her.

A burst of noise, her stomach lurching with a strange sense of weightlessness. The sounds of the waking city roared as wind whistled around her. The unfamiliar growling pulse of the black floating object. She fell, hands scrabbling for purchase on nothing as the wind roared with increasing intensity all around her.

The growling pulse grew louder, the floating object pursuing her, the ground approaching at a horrible rate- “Got you!”

Something was around her waist, her stomach lurching again as the weightless feeling cut off, her fall slowed, the black craft falling away from her. Blue flickers from below – from the feet of the figure who now had its arms around her. Revulsion, fear, shock. Irrational and absurd but Aeris was not willing to see where this lead. She thrashed in the stranger’s grip. “Let go,” she growled, hands and feet aiming for any vulnerable spots.

“What, are you crazy?” the figure yelled, their voice rising as the black craft halted and ascended once more. The stranger muttered something unfamiliar and they shot upwards. Reflexes kicked in and Aeris grabbed the stranger’s arm tight as the city receded again. “Sorry I’m late.”

The sentence made little sense at this juncture; hard to care now the black craft gained on them. Easier to see in the blue glow of the stranger’s boots; they emitted a similar light to the craft – likely the same technology. No single mass; unfamiliar characters covered sections of the outer area; a hint of tinted glass in the centre. “What-“

With another lurch she moved backward and the roof of the Shinra building passed underneath them. Not ideal; but better than falling. Aeris again struggled with the stranger’s grip, all her efforts doing little to shift it. “Give me a minute.” Another unfamiliar word. “Must have a good cover-up ready when the news breaks,” the stranger muttered. She let go, Aeris unable to brace for the impact. She stumbled and slumped down onto something formed of grey metal. Something above the Shinra building.

Behind her the figure fumbled with a hatch. “Come on,” the figure beckoned. Aeris did not move. “Please?” The figure tried again. Aeris retreated. Not far to fall to the roof – chances were good she could get away while this played out without her. “I promise I’ll explain everything when we’re out of this.”

“Explain it now,” Aeris demanded. The fall would be survivable. She would need to roll to have a better chance at surviving injury and away from the edge until she could make it to the balcony beside the President’s office.

“No time.” The stranger paused and reached for their mask. Black hair cascaded out from under the helmet as the stranger pulled it away. Underneath was a feminine face; the stranger smiled at Aeris. “I’m Tifa, and I’m here to get you to safety.”

Aeris’s eyes widened and she forced her expression into a frown. “What do you-“

Tifa darted forward and grabbed Aeris’s arm. Before she could open her mouth to protest a strange electronic pulse sounded from behind her and the grey craft rocked beneath her. Tifa clung to her and she clung to Tifa, who hauled her up and into the hatch with gritted teeth. “Hold on.”

Dark inside, glowing lights covering interior walls like candles in a cathedral. Tifa took a seat and flicked controls. Aeris opened her mouth to say something, to ask anything. What was this? Who was Tifa? Who were the others? Where had they come from? Before she could utter a sound, the craft jolted, tremors running through the surface beneath Aeris and she was flung to the floor. Tifa muttered the same word again. Cursing possibly? No time to speculate. Another weightless feeling as the ship began to turn – and not by any action of Tifa’s it seemed.

“Transfer to emergency boosters,” Tifa murmured as she ran her hands over controls and Aeris focused on not feeling violently ill or slammed into one of the shifting surfaces around her, no one of them seemingly content with being a floor. A flick of a switch and something roared at the back of the craft, the wall resolving to floor, and the former floor now a wall pressed into her back as the whole craft accelerated. She adjusted by increments as the craft skimmed over the tops of the Midgar buildings. A burst of red flickered past. “Figures they’d try shooting.”

Some of the situation was now pretty clear. This was some manner of flying craft of a type far beyond anything Aeris had seen. There were two competing forces, one of which seemed determined to kill her. Tifa’s goals were at least seemingly allied with hers – and given the lack of actual hostile intent, she seemed the better one to stick with for now. That left the troubling questions. Why her?

Tifa hauled on controls and outside the view blurred, the city dropping away and the front of the craft pointing up into the sky. Aeris grabbed hold of the nearest surface as the walls and floors again shifted position. Tifa kept the craft moving and they levelled out. The black craft still behind. A twitch of Tifa's arm sent a flicker of red into the other craft and it burst apart into a rain of fire and fragments.

No deviation from the course; they moved forward through the traces of smoke and destruction left in the wake of the other craft. Heading towards the outer edge of Midgar. Tifa settled back into the chair, her posture relaxing. “Didn’t think-“ Something loud sounded behind them, something burst, leaking, exploding and with a lurch the craft sank towards the city. Close enough to the edge; they were outside the city before they sank too low. Perhaps it would have been better to crash on the edge of the outer edge; now there was fifty meters of space between them and the encircling desert. Tifa wrenched at the controls as the craft dropped with ever increasing speed.

A momentary glimpse of black sand, black sand as far as she could see rushing up towards her. The craft struck something and she jolted forward into darkness.

* * *

“Hey.” Aeris stirred, shifting awkwardly as she tried to find a comfortable way to lie. Her mattress was not great at the best of times, but it seemed to have embarked on a whole new endeavour to make sleep close to impossible. Too tired. Not to mention the absurd dream. “Hey!”

“What?” Aeris opened her eyes, squinting in the bright light. This was not her room. She was lying on the floor of a black room- Memory flooded back. Tifa leant over her. But what was beyond her was far more interesting right now. A blue sky – dotted with clouds. She was not in Midgar anymore.

Tifa waved her hand in front of her face and nodded as their gazes met. “You survived okay then.” She scambled backwards and peered off at something else. What now? Getting away from Tifa seemed the initial best plan; she might not seem to be with the others who came after her – she was still tangled up with this, whatever this was. She could try and make a break for it. Get back home, or hide out somewhere. Fleeting notions of staying outside the city were soon dismissed; how could she possibly survive without any resources?

Aeris scrambled forward, discarding stealth for speed. The ground was black sand, a long groove stretching to- She stopped. Ahead lay the gigantic, hulking shape of Midgar. The upper plate half vanished in haze, and the lower sections must be miles away. How far had they gone? Tifa glanced over her shoulder. “You can stand too. This is going to be easier. Come on.”

“Come on?” Aeris’s legs felt weak and she leant against the craft.

“Yeah.” Tifa walked past the craft. “We need to get going.”

“We don’t need to do anything,” Aeris huffed. “I need to know what is going on.”

“Tifa Lockhart. Independent contractor. Registration number 42753214. Hired to get you back to my employer.” The girl stopped. She sighed. “I’m not planning on hurting you if that’s your concern. I was asked to deliver you unharmed.”

“And what if I don’t want to be delivered to-“ She frowned. “To who precisely?”

“Tseng.”

Which answered precisely nothing. “I think I might take my chances here. So, tell your employer thanks but no thanks, I’m fine.” She shot Tifa a wan smile. “Maybe slightly less so depending on what my employment prospects are like after this morning.”

Tifa was troubled. “Look, I’m just doing my job too. No one told me anyone was going to be shooting at you. Or me.” She studied Aeris. “What are you going to do if they come back?”

Not a prospect she had considered and it was hard to fight the shiver now running down her spine. “I would have been okay. If you hadn’t interrupted.” Not the best of lies; Tifa held her gaze and said nothing. “Okay, so I need to go somewhere else. But I am not being delivered by you or anyone else.” She shot a glance back to the city. “But I don’t want to run into those people again. And my mom-“

“Their focus is solely on you. They’re called Tonberries; single minded targeting based on genetic sequences. They’re not going to bother your mother.”

“Oh that is so much better.” Some relief though; Mom would be fine. Aeris cast around. “Is there anything I can do?”

“Staying away from where they think you are is the best start. But they’ll figure out where you are eventually.” Tifa’s gaze never settled in one spot for long, always checking the landscape around them. “Look, I can’t make you come with me – and right now I can’t deliver you anywhere thanks to this.” She gestured at the craft. “So. How about for now, I get you someplace safe.” A slight twinge in her voice there. Safe was a relative concept on this subject perhaps.

“Is it far?”

Tifa shook her head. “Settlement right over there.” She pointed to a coloured blob off in the distance. Kalm more than likely. “We get there, I meet up with an old, ah, acquaintance. He’ll-“ She shook her head. “We need to get away from the craft and out of the open if nothing else.” She started walking. Little choice but to follow. Wincing a little at her bruised limbs, Aeris trailed after her.

“What is going on?”

“A broad, broad subject,” Tifa replied with a smile. “You specifically, I couldn’t say. Timing’s a bit suspicious with the matriarch dying-“

“Matriarch?” Aeris frowned.

“Yeah,” Tifa said slowly and her eyes widened. “Guess you folks are kept in the dark about that one.”

“Apparently,” Aeris said. There was a matriarch somewhere in the world? She had never heard of such a thing. “But-“ She let out a frustrated sigh. “Are you an alien?”

Tifa shrugged. “From your perspective, sure. From mine same is true.”

“You’re just going to admit that? That you’re from space?” Aeris glanced over her shoulder. “Why would I even try to refute that given the space-ship and the genetic assassins-“

“Not assassins,” Tifa interrupted. “I mean, they can do that, but they were intent on taking you. Otherwise there’d be no building left.”

“I feel a little better,” Aeris replied in a weak voice. “Why me though?”

“That, is an extremely good question, and one I have no answer for,” Tifa shot back with a frown. She surveyed the sky; Aeris copied the movement. Nothing out of the ordinary that she could see. “I was hired to do one job and… Things got complicated.”

“You do this a lot?”

“This?” Tifa smiled ruefully. “Not this. Still new to this line of work – and my scruples meant turning down some nastier jobs.”

“Some comfort then. What did you used to be?”

“A soldier,” Tifa replied. “Served for a few years and just couldn’t take it anymore. This is more my speed. Doesn’t pay as well. Well, until Tseng sent me after you.”

Simple answers to complex questions. So there was alien life and alien life was more or less identical to the examples on the Planet. There were space-ships. Someone named Tseng. Tonberries. And somehow, in some way so much of this centred on her. Aeris pulled at her uniform. “Like to be rid of this at some point.”

Tifa glanced over. “Reckon we can sort something out when we get there.” Another sweeping look to the sky.

They walked on in silence. “What’s it like?” Tifa glanced at her questioningly. “Space? Spaceships? Other planets?”

“Normal, I guess?” Tifa shrugged. “I could ask what its like to never leave Gaia.”

“’Gaia?’” Aeris blinked. “That’s what you call the Planet?”

“Planet’s a descriptive term for, well, a planet,” Tifa said blinking slowly. “We kinda have to distinguish between all of them. More than you do at any rate.”

A lot to digest. Tifa replied to Aeris’s successive questions as best she could. Certain terms did not seem to translate between the mundane and the near magic technology Tifa seemed all too comfortable and familiar with. Certain things simply did not make sense from speaking to her. Differences in mundanity and what she took for granted. Strange. Aliens were alien. But also more familiar than she might expect. Alien life was one of those theoretical, maybe in the future kind of things. Or perhaps a speculative notion withe possibility of truth. Or for some; nightmare-fuel. But outside of certain sci-fi TV shows, aliens never usually resembled humans like Tifa did. Or whoever they were meeting.

Another thing giving her pause. There were various aliens living on the Planet. Most of them exiles from what Tifa indicated; those who fell out of favour with the royal family and the bigger syndicates. There were opportunities to try and cling onto some footing – as Tifa had – but by and large, too many mistakes would see someone marooned on the Planet – a world archaic, but comfortably livable. No scientists – or at least none with sufficient knowledge to meddle in technological developments. And if anyone did try – with a mind to getting back off-world via one way or another – it was not as if there was no one keeping an eye on the Planet. Interventions had occurred before. A plausible ascendency to space for the inhabitants of the Planet was not something those up there (a nebulous term – how disparate was life out there?) feared per se. But-

“The matriarch owns the Planet?”

Tifa blinked at her. “Well, yeah.”

“But…” Aeris cast about for the right words. “But it’s ours.” She blinked. “Isn’t it?”

“It’s not like she was charging you rent or anything, was it?” Tifa scratched at her head. “The great houses own most of the solar system. They control their own worlds, their moons and use them as they see fit. I figure the Matriarch liked this place as it was.”

Aeris shook her head. “It just seems wrong.”

“Way of space.” Tifa shrugged. “Anyway, up to the successor what happens now.”

“And if they decide to wipe us out?” Aeris asked, tensed and ready for what already seemed the inevitable answer.

“That’s their call.” Aeris closed her eyes. “Look, I know how it sounds but, the scale-“ She stopped. “Sorry. For what it’s worth, this place has been in the hands of the family for centuries and no one has ever made a move on it.” Aeris said nothing. “You, your family, all of them. You’ll be fine.”

There was some comfort in her words – the faint comfort she was there to hear them and life as she knew it had not ended years earlier.

* * *

On any other day, Kalm would have been a remarkable, eye-opening experience. Another settlement, a different place. Somewhere without gigantic metal plates suspended above it. And yet, the humans were mere humans – as far as Aeris knew anyway – and paled in significance and her attention contrasted with the admitted alien who was with her. The faint thought she should call Mom came again, but how risky? Back there might be more of those pursuers from before. Those aliens she was assuredly not keen on meeting.

From their conversations it was clear, Aeris’s stance on the world was now shifted. They were not alone in the universe – nor were they alone on the Planet. There could be any number of aliens mixed in amongst any crowd anywhere and she would not have the faintest idea. Whichever specific contact Tifa was looking for was not in the streets, and she lead Aeris at towards their home.


End file.
